Vines on British bandwagon with 'Evolved' sound

Vines climb onto British bandwagon with 'Evolved' sound

MICHAEL D. CLARK, Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, July 25, 2002

It's the latest thing in rock 'n' roll: a British music craze from bands that aren't actually British.

Sneaking onto the edgiest of radio broadcasts and eventually edging their way into the mainstream, the bands emerge with Picadilly and / or bohemian fashions, bed-head hairstyles and never-care attitudes about fame.

It's the formula that ignited the original British Invasion of the Rolling Stones and the Kinks in the '60s. Twenty years later it was the Cure and the Smiths that became the foundation of modern-rock radio.

In the past year it has been the Strokes, the Hives and now the Vines. The new rub is that these bands are all from parts north, south and west of the English coast and not subjects of the crown.

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The Strokes have a continental appearance and an affection for John Lennon, but their music is entrenched in the Velvet Underground-Talking Heads club scene of their native New York.

The Hives' infectious pop beat could be mistaken as English, but their black-and-white dress code and patent-leather shoes betray a distinct Swedish kitsch factor. The band is a Roxette or Ace of Base for a new generation.

The Vines are the band that will most commonly be mistaken for Brits. They play the Engine Room on July 27 with the OK Go (more faux Brits; they're from Chicago). The Vines' debut album, Highly Evolved, shows dashes of early-Beatles discipline, a Rolling Stone's love of soul and the calamity of Radiohead or the Stone Roses.

It figures. All of these bands were highly influential to the foursome who grew up listening to British and American rock in the land down under. These Aussies, however, claim INXS, Midnight Oil, Silverchair and AC/DC as their countrymen.

"As a teenager I liked English bands like the Stone Roses and the Charlatans. And from America I loved Guns N' Roses," says Patrick Matthews, bassist for the Vines. "I didn't get into the '60s until later, but the Beatles blew my mind. They changed something in me."

Matthews and everybody else.

The Vines -- Matthews, singer-guitarist Craig Nicholls, guitarist Ryan Griffiths and drummer Hamish Rosser -- may be from Australia and they may love British rock 'n' roll, but their genesis couldn't have been any more American: They met under the Golden Arches.

Matthews and Nicholls were bagging fries and prepping McOz burgers (imagine a Quarter Pounder with special sauce and a slice of beet on top) at a Sydney McDonald's when they bonded over a common love of songwriting by both Lennon and Kurt Cobain. They formed a band and named it after a little-known Australian '60s group, the Vynes, that Nicholls' father had played in.

Like Jewel spending part of her teenage years living in a van or Sheryl Crow once singing backup for Michael Jackson, this is one of those "early years" stories that the Vines will never escape.

"There could be worse things than meeting at McDonald's. We did work there after all," Matthews says. "I think McDonald's was a good experience in that it made us realize how much we hated (crummy) jobs and gave us a lot of enthusiasm and inspiration to just get out there and make music for ourselves."

The early Vines toured little and concentrated on writing -- as many as 30 songs. Usually only seen playing small pubs or house parties as recently as 15 months ago, the band was virtually unknown in its hometown.

Factory, an independently released single of an electric samba that sounds like an outtake from the Fab Four's Revolver era, is what started the Vines' overseas landslide.

The influential tabloid New Music Express made Factory its single of the week and kept it on its Top 10 list for more than a month. By last summer the group had migrated to Los Angeles to record Highly Evolved.

Toward the end of the year the Vines had signed an international distribution deal with Capitol Records, MTV2 was touting the group as a band on the rise and NME again alluded to it as the future of rock.

And, just like that, Brit ... Australian rock stars were born.

The Vines, however, are trying to keep level heads about their new careers.

"I don't worry about being 'the next big thing,' because in middle America they don't have a clue who we are," Matthews says.

Highly Evolved might have enough range to change how the Vines "play in Peoria." Unlike some albums that have an overriding tone or mood, Highly Evolved has a spectrum of highs and lows. It's as if songwriter Nicholls has said, "Here is my range of emotions. Pick which side of me you like best."

Classic nods to Lennon and Ray Davies, like Mary Jane and Homesick, are buttressed with the purposeful distortion and screaming garage sound of Outtatheway, an approach favored by Pearl Jam on the Vitalogy album, as well as Oasis.

Get Free is a close relative of Nirvana's debut album, Bleach. Nicholls has figured out Cobain's secret for making his voice as raw as a whip wound.

Matthews says it is correct to assume that part of Highly Evolved's variety stems from the band members' diverse tastes. He also credits the length of time the Vines had to make the album, suggesting future endeavors might not be as far-flung.

"In the Jungle is nearly 5 years old, while Mary Jane was written six months before we came to America," Matthews says. "That probably has a lot to do with In the Jungle having three parts and Mary Jane being one chord progression covering many themes."

The Vines indulge their musical inspirations and relish their rock 'n' roll heroes. At some point, however, answering questions about who influenced them will become as tiring as describing working at McDonald's. Sooner or later they will just want to sound like the Vines.

"I become obsessed with a band for years and years, and it never feels like I'm influenced by one band," Matthews says. "Also, when you work on a song for a long time, eventually the influences seem to go away and you're just left with your own creation."